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DAC Bake-off III: Electric Boogaloo (Midlands) Oct 11th, 2014

ItemAudio said:
As it's local, I'm happy to chip in a few goodies . . . whatever you need.
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If Sbgk is going a T1 to be used with his dac to demonstrate MQn and a different flavour of CA is worthwhile. It might open eyes. Make it a haswel(anyway no point in me telling you how to put it together!)
 
Sure - it would be fun to compare Phase IV machines . . . also some DACs. The USB-flavoured Aurender X100L might be available then also.
 
Hi Steven

Room for one more guest?

If so I’d love to come along,:)

Seems we live quite close to each other.:cool:
 
Can those people who prefer blind testing be blindfolded?

Also, are you going to allow discussion immediately after or during the comparison, or get people to note down their comments first? I ask this, because you have a lot of believers coming to the event, and believer, as history shows, can be talked into believing many things. :D:D:D
 
avole said:
I ask this, because you have a lot of believers coming to the event, and believer, as history shows, can be talked into believing many things. :D:D:D
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“The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder... Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe.”

― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
 
I've noticed many of the most vocal atheists I know used to be strongly religious types - they've not really changed their personalities, they've just re-branded!

Most people potter around in the middle but no-one hears from them because they aren't vocal about what they think (namely, "I think there is probably something more but I don't know what it is", or "I think there is probably nothing more").
 
darrenyeats said:
I've noticed many of the most vocal atheists I know used to be strongly religious types - they've not really changed their personalities, they've just re-branded!

Most people potter around in the middle but no-one hears from them because they aren't vocal about what they think (namely, "I think there is probably something more but I don't know what it is", or "I think there is probably nothing more").
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It's like wot Yeats wrote:

'The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.'
 
darrenyeats said:
I've noticed many of the most vocal atheists I know used to be strongly religious types - they've not really changed their personalities, they've just re-branded!

Most people potter around in the middle but no-one hears from them because they aren't vocal about what they think (namely, "I think there is probably something more but I don't know what it is", or "I think there is probably nothing more").
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Is there a middle? You either believe a god can exist or you don't.
 
avole said:
Is there a middle? You either believe a god can exist or you don't.
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This typifies black and white/binary/absolutist thinking that plagues this and other boards.

How can any logical person believe either that there is or there isn't a god when nobody actually knows whether there is one or not?

Any form of belief, either positive or negative, is illogical. A strongly asserted belief is insanity.

Binary thinkers tend to be a vociferous irrational minority and lurching from one absolute position to another is unremarkable.
 
Steven Toy said:
I think the objective of bake-off 3 is to answer this very question.
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Yup. Actually you quoted me before I took the "(now)" bit out as I think my position has always been "how important are any differences that exist", and have simply now moved from a position of thinking "probably not at all" to "possibly of some significance"!
 
p.s. Not sure where you are on dates but I won't know about September availability for a couple of weeks (other than definitely not w/e of 27/28).
 
We can compare any number of DACs up to, say 5. If Phil brings his L3 MDAC Fusion to compare with my L3 MDAC Toy and if we could perhaps borrow a bog-standard MDAC we will have three DACs that are already quite different sonically but look the same (apart from being black or silver) and will be already level matched.

All we need then is a cheapo DAC (£30 or so) and a mega one (£5k) and we're done.

Here's a thought: the 5k DAC may or may not be better in terms of musical communication than the Toy or Fusion MDACs.

Musical communication criteria:

Separation of instruments and/or vocals

"Texture" of instruments and/or vocals

Harmonic structure of the above, especially piano

Dynamics, inflections in instruments and vocals

Timing and interplay - hearing individual performances, not just that they are there adding tonal colour but what they are actually doing to contribute to the overall performance.

Ease with which you can pick out the above; less effort means a more satisfying and unfatiguing listen.

Hi-fi criteria (not necessarily mutually exclusive with the above):

Width, height, depth of soundstage

Imaging

Perceived depth of bass

Air and space

Tonal balance.

I am not suggesting that the hi-fi criteria are less important but if you only focus on these you are more likely to conclude that the differences between DACs are not so important compared with, say, the speakers and room.
 
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